By Laura Guertin, Penn State Brandywine, Media, PA, USA
My inspiration for this quilt came from an unexpected event – a virtual podcast discussion about world biomes.
Back in 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing the temporary closure of my university and a local arboretum, a colleague and I started hosting biweekly Zoom sessions with members from both communities. This was the start of an online podcast club, where we developed curated, nature-themed podcast listening lists for participants to listen to before our Zoom gatherings. The topic for one of our discussions was World Biomes, which was a suggestion from one of our regular podcast club participants. During a prior discussion, when we asked our participants for suggestions about topics for future weeks, one attendee shared that world biomes would be a good topic, as there’s a “pointlessness of saving the pandas if you don’t start by saving the biome.”
We set up a list of six podcasts and seven questions for our community to listen to and to reflect upon. When we came virtually together, we had a great hour-long discussion among our 13 participants. Towards the end of the session, many of the attendees were questioning what we could do for biomes, what the next steps could be for each of us to take. Keeping in mind the “pointlessness of pandas” and thinking what action I could individually pursue, I decided to make a quilt.
Before the pandemic, I recalled going to a local fabric store and seeing several flannel fabrics that had messages printed on them with the words “save the dolphins” and “save the sea turtles.” I thought this might be an interesting fabric to tie into the take-home message from our discussion of starting with the biome. So I ordered some fabrics online and created my first pandemic quilt, dedicated to the ocean biome.
The center of the quilt represents the biome, containing images of plants and animals from the ocean. Then around the center square are the messages of saving various animals that are popular with people (dolphins, sea turtles, belugas, sea lions). I intentionally have the words pointing outward from the center square, emphasizing the focus in the center (the biome) and where we need to start our conservation efforts, and then moving out to the individual species and those efforts necessary for protection.
This quilt measures 40 inches by 40 inches and was completed September 20, 2020.
About The Author
Distinguished Professor Laura Guertin holds a Ph.D. in marine geology & geophysics from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science and has served as faculty at Penn State Brandywine (Media, Pennsylvania, USA) since 2001. With a passion for science outreach, she taps into creative approaches such as quilting to engage audiences in learning about Earth science and its applications.